Talat would get hundreds
of bouquets, telegrams, letters
and phone calls from the
film fraternity, his fans and
friends on his birthday
which was on 24th February.

Talat Mahmood had
numerous FAN CLUBS all over the World.
This one in
Mauritius played host to him during his concert tour
there.

"Talat
Mahmood, the greatest male singer
after K.L. Saigal ......
!"

This letter appeared in
"Times of India" MAY 21, '98.
It sums up the feeling
of all Talat Mahmood fans
the world over !

Many
books like these have been written by Talat Mahmood fans
on their
favorite singer. Mr.Rakesh Pratap Singh of Kanpur (India),
an ardent Talat
fan, has painstakingly written 747 songs of
Talat Mahmood
in his book 'Talat Geet Kosh' !

TALAT MAHMOOD SINGS FOR BBC TELEVISION, LONDON

Photographed by Khalid during
USA concert tour

Talat photographed by Khalid while
relaxing in his beautiful garden

A random selection of
Talat Mahmood's CD's

A random selection of Talat
Mahmood's LP's & EP's

Talat fans
care as deeply for him even today. Like Mrs. Moby Shetty
from London who has dedicated a tree in memory of her all
time favorite singer!

Talat arrives to welcome
of garlands, bouquets and an outpouring of love, affection and
respect. Collector, Mr.S.S. Khosla ( on his right ) gently leads
Talat though introductions to other top 'Customs & Central
Excise' officers

Collector, Mr.S.S.
Khosla, a great fan of Talat Mahmood, on whose personal request Talat and his son
Khalid came for the inauguration.

"Co-starring with Talat Mahmood in LALA RUKH was a dream come true for me. Even though this was my second
film with him, my heart would still miss a beat whenever we acted
together ! He was my heart-throb as long as I can remember and I
made it a point never to miss a song of his on the radio. One thing
about Talat was that he was almost perfect, hardly troubling his
directors with re-takes."

GOPAL
SHARMA

famous radio announcer

Ameen Sayani and Gopal Sharma are the 2 most
recognizable voices on the radio apart from the singers whose songs
they have played by the hundreds. Gopal Sharma has said in Times Of
India - Jan 5/2000:

"The most popular singer is not the one
who has sung the most, but one whose songs became more popular in
quantity than another singer. Like, if Talat Mahmood sang 800 songs and
they all became popular, then he is definitely more popular than
another singer whose songs number in thousands!"

"Talat Mahmood was the quintessential
romantic. His gentle good looks, his chivalrous manners and his quiet
reclusivity had all the elements of high romance".

DILIP KUMAR

actor

IN A DOORDARSHAN
DOCUMENTARY:

"Talat was a wonderful human being and a perfect gentleman. The sort
of ghazals and songs he has sung and popularized were very
revolutionary and modern for their time. There was a uniqueness in his voice
which has never been seen in any other singer. His songs touched peoples
hearts. When I would act to his playbacked songs I would put in that
much more extra effort to match his singing prowess."

LATA MANGESHKAR

singer

IN A STAGE SHOW IN
MUMBAI
- MAY 2000 :

"I have sung a lot of duets with Talat sahab and always enjoyed a
wonderful rapport with him. I first heard his heart-warming songs on
the radio when he began singing from Lucknow and Calcutta. Me and my entire
family was
already his fans by the time he came to Bombay. His voice is the only
voice in this Film Industry which has never been copied!"

JAGJIT SINGH

singer

SOCIETY magazine -NOV '87

"I was weaned on Talat Mahmood, so to
speak, because much
before we became popular, he was already the King. If you'll notice,
Mehdi Hassan sings like him! There's very little difference."

MEHDI
HASSAN

singer

THE HINDU - 27TH. SEPT. '91

"It was through the vocals of Talat Saab that I
discovered the goldmine in my throat. His songs like 'Ek main
hoon ek meri bekasi ki shaam hai' and 'Husn walon ko na dil do ye mita
dete hain' had left a lasting impression on me. It was whilst
singing these two Talat numbers on stage in the early years of my singing
career, that I held an audience of 10,000 in Pindi spellbound! Believe it or not, the moment I completed singing these two Talat
hits, the Pindi audience showered me with money and in a trice I had
collected almost about Rs.14,000 ! All this, was of
course, courtesy Talat Saab ! "

KISHORE KUMAR

singer

ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY OF INDIA - DEC '87

Such was Talat Mahmood's aura, that Kishore
Kumar on hearing Talat once at Anil Biswas's house had remarked,
"I think I had better give up singing. How can I dare open my
mouth so long as such a perennially romantic voice is around !"

AMEEN SAYANI

famous radio
announcer

AMEEN
SAYANI RELIVING THE "GEETMALA" LORE IN 'SCREEN' - SEPT 22, 2000

"The Geetmala which was aired from 1952-53 didnít rank the songs. It
only played seven hit songs, without rating them. It was only in 1954
that Geetmala became a countdown show.
I remember vividly that in 1954, the topper of the first countdown show
was
Talat Mahmoodís "Jayen to jayen kahan" from film 'TAXI DRIVER'."

ANIL BISWAS

music director

SPOKEN DURING ZEE
TV'S 'SA RE GA MA' PROGRAMME

"Talat sahab was the only singer with the greatest ratio of hits to
his credit. He is the only singer whose every song is a classified
hit. All the singers from Mukesh to Lata have sung for me but whilst
the other singers had their share of flops, it is only Talat whose
every song has become a hit!"

NAUSHAD

music director

Doordarshan's "Shraddhanjali"
programme :

"You
can fathom how unique Talat sahab's voice is by the fact that there are
a thousand copies of Mohd. Rafi, Kishore, Mukesh and others. But Talat
sahab's is the only voice in our Film Industry that has never been
copied or duplicated ever! His is a voice that stands apart
and is truely inimitable!"

KHAYYAM

music director

THE SUNDAY FREE PRESS JOURNAL - 27.2.94

"Talat Mahmood is a cultured person whose voice is sweet in all it's
colors. He is a great ghazal singer and I regard him in the same
company as Begum Akhtar or Mallika Pukhraj. No one can imitate him.
Unke paas ek nafees zabaan aur purkashish aawaz hai. I am his
fan!"

SHIKHA VOHRA

journalist

".....Indeed,
I have been in the presence of greatness itself !" wrote
journalist Shika Vohra, in Times of India - 17.5.98, after interviewing
this great singer. Such was the aura, charisma and charm of Talat
Mahmood !!!

RAJENDRA
MEHTA & NINA MEHTA

ghazal singer duo

SUNDAY magazine 20th Sept. '87 :

"For us there is only one ghazal king Talat Mahmood
- and only one ghazal queen Begum Akhtar."

RAVI

music director

THE SUNDAY FREE PRESS JOURNAL - 27.2.94

"Talat is a singer with a very sweet voice and his own
inimitable style - the serious song filled with meaning and bordering
on the ghazal. Many of today's ghazal singers have tried to imitate
him and have failed. Only Jagjit Singh's voice and style bears some
similarity to his. Talat's place in film music will remain
unassailable."

BAPPI LAHIRI

music director

Bappi Lahiri told PTI Bhasha, MSN
NEWS - 8/5/11

"Talat Mahmood was a great singer. He
had Mukesh, Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi as his competitors but
still he managed to gain recognition. He was different from the
others. Talat was a great friend of my
father, I always wanted to work with him but unfortunately couldn't.
I have met him on several occasions."

PANKAJ UDHAS

ghazal singer

Voice clip in "Legends - Talat
Mahmood" released by HMV

"Whenever there is a discussion on
ghazals only one name comes to your lips - that of Shahenshah e Ghazal
Janab Talat Mahmood ! I am very much influenced by him and his
music. His singing style, his soft velvety voice, his sweet, emotion
filled, tuneful film songs, geets and ghazals..... a voice
so sweet that you can listen to it for hours on end..... and you get that feeling of
sweet nectar being poured into your ears!"

ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY OF INDIA - DEC '87

For Talat's film 'Dil e
Nadaan', producer A.R. Kardar (who launched Raj Kapoor) launched an All India Beauty
Contest to hunt for a new heroine to act opposite this immensely
popular singer. The contest was sponsored by "Kolynos" the then leading
brand of toothpaste. The winner was beautiful Peace Kanwal and she did the
romantic lead opposite Talat! It was a dream come true for her! Which girl in those days would not have given her right ear to
come face to face with this handsome King Of Ghazals !!!

THE EVENING NEWS - 14TH.
MARCH '83

Journalist Vinod Dhawan,
commenting on ghazal singer Ghulam Ali's singing style, wrote
: "Ghulam Ali has no depth. He can't even graze the feet of
the likes of Begum Akhtar and Talat Mahmood."

Talat would get hundreds
of fan letters everyday , like the one reproduced below. This
fan letter appeared in the popular film magazine STAR & STYLE -
July 18, 1977. It was awarded the 'Best Letter Prize of
Rs.75/-' from this popular film magazine, beating other fan letters to
stars like Dilip Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Randhir Raj Kapoor and others !

To,

Talat Mahmood.

Talat, my sweetheart, I was
sixteen when I fell in love with you and now after a decade, the
situation is still the same. The other day I was watching your film
"Waris" on TV, I envied Suraiya whenever you came a little
close to her. I prepare "kheer" on your birthday and pray to
Allah to give some years of my life to you. When I hear your sweet,
velvety voice, I forget everything else in the world. I feel that your
singing is going directly to my heart and flowing through my
bloodstream in every vein. I wish I could hear your "Ae gham e
dil kya karoon" while leaving this world. When I think of you all
the time my husband gets cheesed off. But I can't help it. I wish that
at least in the next birth I become your Begum and hear your voice
straight from the heart, resting my head on your 'dil'.

Yours forever,

Meeta

Agra

THESE COMMENTS ON TALAT MAHMOOD BY
POPULAR STARS
APPEARS IN THE BOOK 'TALAT GEET KOSH'

RAJ KAPOOR (
producer, director, actor ) : "Talat Sahab sang with rare gusto
and inspiration. He was flawless in his rendering of songs and always
touched the hearts of the people."

SHAMMI KAPOOR (
actor ) : "Talat Sahab's voice is incomparable. He sang with such
inspiration that it touched many people's hearts."

JAIRAJ ( actor ) :
"Before I heard him as a singer I saw him as a handsome young film
hero, one of the few who sang their own songs. Then he entered playback
singing and became a legend in his lifetime. Talat bhai, as we
affectionately call him, belonged to the old culture and was a gentleman
in the real sense."

CHANDRA SHEKHAR (
actor ) : "Talat's voice is as cultured, dignified and melodious
as he is in his personal life."

QAMAR JALALABADI (
lyricist ) : "Talat Mahmood has sung many songs for me
which are very popular. He has great love for Urdu poetry and his
selection of ghazals is brilliant. I am much impressed by his warmth."

PULAK BANERJEE (
lyricist ) : "Talat is a great singer of our country. He has made
a kingdom and made himself a king in the country of romanticism."

USTAD ALLARAKHA (
renowned tabla player & music director ) : "What can one say
about Talat! He is a great person, a great singer and very
valuable artiste India has produced. He is a famous playback singer
whose speciality was ghazals. He creates such grace and pathos in each
ghazal that it goes straight to your heart. He has sung many songs
composed by me, notably "Bewafa", where he playbacked
for Raj Kapoor "

C. ARJUN ( music
director ) : "I always found Talat Sahab to be a noble human
being. His voice was silky and velvety. He was always so helpful during
recordings."